Blog / Cycling: These days, the cycling tour operator pro style in collaboration with TUI Cruises a journey of a very special kind. The brand-new cruise ship 'Mein Schiff 4' will take you to the Canary Islands and Madeira, where Prostyle offers challenging bike tours for more than 25 participants. Velomotion will be there live and will provide everyone at home with impressions and information.
After the day of arrival yesterday, on which the 27 Cycle Camp participants and the seven crew members arrived in Gran Canaria on the imposing TUI cruise ship 'Mein Schiff 4', which was only inaugurated in June, today was the official starting signal for the Prostyle Cycle Camp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSUkAR5v-ss&feature=youtu.be
The program included a day at sea in the direction of Madeira, where the first hard tour awaits us tomorrow. After a hearty breakfast in one of the numerous on-board restaurants, the prostyle crew and participants met at 11 a.m. in one of the conference rooms for a first get-together. Some of the people know each other from previous tours - two years ago Prostyle was also on the Mediterranean with TUI Cruises - but there are also many cruise newcomers.
"Hi, I'm Björn and I thought up this cheese here," jokes Prostyle boss and organizer of the camp, Björn Müller, as a welcome. The small conference room is full: more than 35 people come together, including all participants and guides. Keyword guides: Björn proudly introduces his team, which takes care of the holidaymakers and will accompany them safely on the sometimes quite demanding tours, including, for example, Enrico Poitschke, former professional and now sports director at the second division Bora-Argon 18. Robert brings more professional experience Wagner along – “Wagi” is currently driving for LottoNL-Jumbo and became German Champion in 2011.
A first murmur goes through the room when Björn introduces tomorrow's tour. "It's going to really hurt at times," he warns - the slightly more than 80 km long tour over Madeira offers more than 2.000 meters of altitude and gradients of more than 20% at times. But with a total of six guides, it is easy to drive in several groups - depending on the performance level of the participants and their willingness to suffer - I am personally not entirely unhappy to be able to take a seat in the support vehicle so that I can provide you with photographic impressions tomorrow .
After the tours of the following days - including on Tenerife, La Palma and Fuerteventura - have been briefly discussed and a few questions have been answered, we are all divided into small groups, because in the afternoon there is still an essential item on the program before departure: the bikes have to freed from their suitcases and set up.
We also have a separate room for this, in which Björn and his team have set up a small workshop. Professional assembly and screwdriver help comes from Guido Scheeren, who as a team mechanic at Etixx-QuickStep usually takes care of Tony Martin and Co's cars and is on board as a salivate and guide at the Cycle Camp. 
But 35 bicycles need quite a lot of space – especially when they are still packed. Right from the start you get the impression that there is more bike than air in the small room. Guido supports all participants in assembling their bikes and at 16.00 p.m. it's finally done - the bikes are ready to go.
So it can actually start tomorrow at 9.30 am. Until then we will still enjoy the culinary highlights on the ship, soak up some sun on the deck or go for a swim in the pool. I think we are all excited to see what awaits us in Madeira tomorrow - after all, the conditions are fantastic: 25°C, little wind and sun are the order of the day.
With this in mind: See you tomorrow!